The Landshuter Ringbuch is a Germanwrestling manual first printed by Hans Wurm in the 1490s.[1] The author and artist of the brief incunabulum remain anonymous. Dr. Sydney Anglo describes Wurm’s work as an "experimental and rudimentary block book", and notes that it may have been one of the earliest printed martial arts treatises produced.[2] The style of grappling illustrated in Hans Wurm’s wrestling manual is of the same school or tradition as those found in the Goliath Fechtbuch and the manual of Fabian von Auerswald. This might be considered a less dangerous, more "sporting" style, and is sometimes referred to as Ringkunst.

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Publication History

The Landshuter Ringbuch was initially printed in Landshut, Germany in the 1490s by Hans Wurm. It was reprinted by an unknown publisher in ca. 1510,[3] who also had new illustrations cut. In ca. 1512,[4] it was reprinted again in Augsburg by one Hannsen Sittich, who seems to have used the original plates. In the 1510s, a manuscript copy was also produced and included in the Goliath Fechtbuch, including greatly expanded text.

Reproductions of all three editions of the book were published by Minkowski in 1963 and by Bleibrunner in 1969.